ADDENDUM::Comcast Makes Money Off Everest University Ads, Even As Schools Are Being Sold Or Closed – Consumerist

Corinthians just doesn't know when to give it up. One of three articles concerning them,,,

Earlier this summer, facing lawsuits and investigations from multiple state and federal agencies, Corinthian Colleges Inc. struck a deal with the U.S. Dept. of Education to either sell off or wind-down most its schools, including Everest University, WyoTech, and Heald College. Yet Corinthian continues to plague the airways with ads, enticing potential students into enrolling in schools that may not exist in a few months. And guess who is making money off the ads? The folks at Comcast.

Ads for CCI schools have been airing on syndicated daytime TV for quite some time, but we’d expected them to cool off, (if not vanish completely) following the deal with the DOE. The deal stipulates that the $35 million in federal aid released to the schools only be used for “approved education activities.”

Advertising for schools that will no longer exist doesn’t seem like it would fall under that heading, so we recorded some daytime TV programming to see if the ads were still running.


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Reps for NBC’s distribution division declined to comment on this story or on why the company continues to run ads from a company that is under scrutiny from regulators and prosecutors around the country.

And while these may only represent about 1-in-20 ads on each of the shows that air them, it’s still revenue — money that likely came from taxpayer-funded federal aid — going into the pockets of Comcast so that a school facing allegations of grade-manipulation and bogus job-placement stats can continue to lure in new students.

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Interestingly, no one from the Dept. of Education, nor any of the federal lawmakers who have called for Everest to cease enrolling students altogether, have been willing to go on the record about whether or not these ads violate the operating agreement between CCI and the feds.

However, a government source tells Consumerist that while the DOE does not have the legal authority to cease advertising, the operating agreement does require that CCI immediately halt enrollment at schools that are entering teach-out programs.

Comcast Makes Money Off Everest University Ads, Even As Schools Are Being Sold Or Closed – Consumerist